Pulse
by ScarletAngel68
Summary: Getting hurt was practically in the job description, but they still never saw it coming. Starfire's life is on the line, and the Titans can only wait, and deal. [One shot: RoS, hints of BBRa]


_Disclaimer_: Teen Titans belongs to Glen Murakami; I'm just here to drool over the animation, obsess about pairings, and write about the characters.

_Pairings_: Some mild Robin/Starfire and barely-there Beast Boy/Raven. I tried to keep the focus on the team as a whole. How I love the group dynamic.

_Author's Note_: I wrote this for **Ozzy Anmudis**. There were three requirements:  
1. Include the band "Cannibal Corpse" in it somewhere.  
2. Have someone die. (Death is _so_ not fun. You've no idea the agony I went through, deciding who to kill off!)  
3. When asked on how the ending should be: "an ending that starts out sad, then turns out happy." Yay.

Enormous, monstrously huge thanks to **Unfunny Joke**, **Change-Of-Heart2**, and **Gemkazoni** for the wonderful beta work, and apologies for taking more than a year to get around to editing this. It's now three in the morning, and now that I've fixed it up, I am so much more happy with this story than I was at about midnight tonight. So much love for you guys.

* * *

**Pulse**

"Hey, guys, listen to this!" 

Raven, Starfire, and Robin came into the kitchen to find Beast Boy perched on the counter next to Cyborg, fiddling with the radio dials. Music, or something resembling it, blasted through the room.

"What _is_ that?" sneered Raven.

Starfire cocked her head, finding the hoarse screaming that spilled from the speakers oddly familiar. "Is that the monster of cookies? I was very fond of him, but I do not remember him ever sounding so angry."

Beast Boy, momentarily distracted from finding how high he could turn the volume before Raven snapped him in half, looked bewildered, then amused. "Monster of – I think you mean the Cookie Monster, Star."

"Oh. _Cookie Monster_, yes. I did not know he was on the radio! I was sure that program was only on television."

Beast Boy threw his hands up, as if to ward off the idea of associating the kid's show with what played on the radio. "No, no, it's a band. Some gruesome name...what was it, Cy?"

"Uh, Cannibal something," said Cyborg, still staring at the radio, transfixed.

"Right, right, Cannibal Corpse."

Raven grimaced. "It's awful."

"Give it a chance," Cyborg said reproachfully. "It's only been on for like, half a minute."

The Titans listened in something akin to morbid fascination as the music played on. Suddenly, Robin declared, "You know. It's not that bad. I kind of like it."

Raven turned to him, betrayed. "_Why_?"

"No, he's right – just listen to the lyrics," said Beast Boy.

"You can...understand what they are saying?" asked Starfire.

The five stood in silence, listening closely to what they had thought until now was just unintelligible garble. At length, Beast Boy admitted, "Well..._no_."

Raven rolled her eyes and turned to Cyborg. "Please tell me you don't agree with them."

Cyborg shrugged. "I don't mind it. 'S not horrible."

She snorted. "Boys."

Beast Boy protested in defense of his gender. "_Star_ didn't say she didn't like it! Star, you don't hate it, right?" Beast Boy scooted down the counter to look at Starfire imploringly.

"I do not wish to insult anyone's tastes." Starfire bit her lip. "And it somehow would not be _right_ to pass judgment on the Cookie Monster."

"It's _not_ the—"

"Hey, was that the alarm?"

"Crap!" Robin whipped out the communicator, hissing, "Turn the radio down!"

"Tell me it's somebody new. I swear, the repeat performances are getting old. Like, _Plasmus_? Lame. Or, God, it ain't the little brat, is it? If it's Gizmo, I won't be held responsible for my actions." Cyborg flicked the radio off with a little too much force.

Robin winced. "I hate to break it to you, but it's Cinderblock. He's apparently escaped from the high-security prison. Again."

The Titans groaned as one. They set off, Robin leading the way and grumbling, "High-security, my _ass_."

* * *

"Grr, argh!" 

Raven rolled her eyes. "Your words hurt me _so_." She tore a lamp post from the ground with her powers and it sailed toward Cinderblock, but he knocked it away like an insect. It nearly collided with Beast Boy, who was charging at Cinderblock as a rhino, but he avoided a nasty concussion by using his momentum to roll away in human form. The post flew over his head and hit the ground, skidding on the cement and sending up sparks.

"Sonic boom!" shouted Robin to Cyborg over the noise of crashing cars and Cinderblock's angry grunts.

"There's too much open space, man!"

Starfire swooped down between the two of them. "If I lure him into an alley, will that be a suitable area?"

"Yeah, but—"

Starfire was already off. She cut a circle around a building and reappeared behind the enemy as he faced off with Raven and Beast Boy again. She floated quietly out of his line of sight, readying her star bolts.

Robin was about to yell to her to back up a bit. She was too close, but...

It was unclear whether Cinderblock sensed or heard Starfire behind him, or if he'd just pulled his arm back to aim a punch Beast Boy, but she was suddenly flying backwards from the force of a blow from his right arm. She slammed against a concrete building and began to fall.

Cinderblock turned around to see what he had hit and decided to follow through with a solid punch to her torso while she was still in mid-air. He sent the unconscious Starfire crashing through the office building's first floor windows. She smashed into a desk and landed hard on the ground, surrounded by shattered glass, twisted desk metal and a flurry of papers that fluttered slowly to the ground like snowflakes.

It all happened in a matter of seconds.

The Titans were frozen to their places, staring at Starfire's still body. Someone's screams for an ambulance jolted Raven into action – she left the three shocked boys behind, having the presence of mind to snatch a bystander's phone from his hands as she ran toward the body.

The other three still couldn't move. Unfortunately, Cinderblock wasn't considerate enough to give them a moment to absorb the shock.

Only Cyborg's tackle knocked an unresponsive Robin out of the path of the huge fist coming their way. It crunched into the sidewalk instead, sending cement flying in all directions. Cinderblock growled and ripped his fist from the hole. They scrambled backwards, not quickly enough, but suddenly there was Raven's distant yell, and a broad black shield blocked the next blow.

A massive green tail met the side of their foe's head, and he went sprawling onto the street. Beast Boy lowered his head down to Cinderblock's level and growled low in his throat. Cinderblock tried to punch him in the jaw, but his position on the ground was awkward and he fell back again. Beast Boy gave him a toothy dinosaur grin and took a step back. Cinderblock grunted as he stood up adamantly.

Seemingly out of nowhere, a truck surrounded by black energy bulldozed him into the alley.

Cyborg and Robin stepped into the alley, facing Cinderblock. "I got the sonic." Cyborg lifted his right arm and his cannon opened and clicked into place. "Ready?"

Robin glanced back at the street, and he heard the scream of an ambulance. His features set grimly. "Ready."

* * *

"I think we may be losing her." Robin hated the hint of panic in the man's voice nearly as much as the actual words. 

"Give her some oxygen!"

"Does she even breathe air?"

Robin's seized the nearest medic's shoulders, nearly lifting him into the air. "_Do something!_"

The man babbled, apparently rendered unintelligible by fright.

"Mister, um...Mr. _Robin_, sir, technically you shouldn't even be in here – if you would kindly _drop_ one of the people who are trying to save your friend's life..." interjected an older doctor.

Robin dropped him. "Sorry," he muttered. "I'm just a little—"

"Give her oxygen. _Now_." The doctor took Robin firmly by the arm and led him a little away from the doctors and Starfire. "If you hadn't sworn that you would be no trouble in here, and hadn't proven yourself in the past to be such a responsible young man, we wouldn't have allowed you in here in the first place. But I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to leave."

"No, you can't do that! Please!"

"She's been stabilized for the moment," said the relieved voice of another doctor. The doctor Robin was speaking with gestured back at Starfire. "See? She's fine for now, and I assure you we are doing our best to keep it that way. Staying in here will only serve to bring you – not to mention the other doctors – more stress."

Robin made a face and left the room reluctantly. He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Cyborg. "Don't worry, Rob. Star's gonna be all right."

* * *

Raven clutched her stomach, feeling nauseous. She'd done more healing on Starfire today than she'd done in her life, and she was so weak Cyborg had had to carry her halfway to the hospital before she'd gained back the strength in her legs to walk. So much healing, and it still hadn't been enough. The thought of Starfire's broken body made a fresh wave of nausea wash over her. 

Raven sighed and let her head drop back against the wall.

This would _not_ turn into a guilt trip. She had done the best she could and healed all the wounds she could see. She wasn't a doctor, or a psychic – she couldn't heal internal wounds she didn't know were there. There was no use blaming herself for it, or she would just end up sending bad vibes to everyone else.

The boys seemed to be taking it a lot harder than she was; Robin was, predictably, totally heartbroken. Cyborg and Beast Boy still hadn't fully absorbed the shock, judging from waves of emotion she had briefly allowed past her psychic barriers earlier. They hadn't been at all prepared for one of the team to be so gravely injured. Did they expect that they were all invulnerable?

She tried to drive off her pessimistic mood. Maybe she wasn't the most cheerful person in the world – but the least she could do for the boys was to be...well, not upbeat, _per se_, but not as...gloomy.

Robin pushed off from the wall and muttered, "I'm going to go check on her. Be right back."

She watched him stride off and vanish around the corner.

Cyborg paced back and forth, and Raven turned her eyes to the metal boots passing in and out of her line of vision.

She shifted uncomfortably in her position on the cold tile floor.

_I'm bored_, came the unbidden thought, and she chastised herself for thinking that at a time like this. Starfire was most likely dying. Then again, did she really want to focus on that? On second thought, she'd rather think about being bored.

She lolled her head to the side to look at Beast Boy, who had just groaned as he buried his head in his hands.

Cyborg thoughtfully asked if either of them would like some water. Beast Boy accepted, and for the first time, she realized how dry her throat was, but she turned down the offer anyway, thinking she'd get one later. Cyborg could probably only carry two cups full of water, and he should get one for himself.

Then it was just her and Beast Boy. He was sitting next to her on the floor, with a few feet between the two of them, face still buried in his arms.

She let down her guard a little, enough to let a just small amount of his emotion to reach her, but there was immediately a rush of boredom, joy, despair, fear, anger, frustration, depression, panic – that was the thing about hospitals. A place filled with so much sickness and death and miraculous recoveries was chock-full of emotional highs and lows. But she managed to pick out Beast Boy's feelings as the loudest, in a sense, as he was the only other person in the hallway.

An unexpected surge of hatred accompanied the anticipated undercurrents of fear, sorrow, and shock. She immediately shut down her barriers. What the hell? She hoped he wasn't blaming himself for anything.

Maybe he'd fallen asleep. Sometimes odd feelings she picked up could be attributed to the person having a bizarre dream. And, she thought wryly, the only times he was ever this quiet were when he was asleep.

His negative emotions left a bad taste in her mouth. Beast Boy shouldn't be so upset. He shouldn't be going through something like this. Like Starfire had said of Cookie Monster – just a few hours ago, unbelievable, it felt like a _lifetime_ – it somehow wasn't _right_.

Raven hoped Starfire didn't know what was happening to her. She hoped she was dreaming of Tamaran, of Robin, of mustard. Anything but the reality, really, would be preferable.

_Was_ Beast Boy dreaming? She nearly reached out a hand to touch him on the arm, but held back.

"...Beast Boy?"

* * *

Robin stood leaning in the doorway of Starfire's hospital room. He didn't enter, but he watched her sleep. 

"Hey, Star. I guess I'm not supposed to be here – none of the doctors gave the okay. But you know I need to be here. If this ends up being the last time I ever..." He choked up and didn't let himself finish. "You're my best friend." He rubbed the back of his neck nervously, and couldn't say the next part out loud, unconscious audience or not._ More than a friend, maybe. I hope. _

He exhaled. "I know this is going to sound like every sappy movie ever – God knows you've watched enough of them, anyway – and you probably can't hear me, anyway. But I need you to be strong, okay? It'd be too weird, if you were...gone. We'd be lost without you, if that doesn't sound too cliché. Just know that, Star. Okay? Please."

The monitor seemed to jump a little, and for a second he wondered if she _could_ hear him.

_Beep, beep, beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beeeeeep..._

"Shit!" Robin lunged forward, unsure what to do.

"Excuse me!" Two doctors shoved past Robin, and he stumbled to the side, reeling, finally putting a hand against the wall and trying to figure out which way was even up, because this definitely wasn't the way things were supposed to go.

Since when did pep talks induce death, anyway? Cyborg always groaned about how trite he could sound, but – _Starfire_ was always nice about it, and she'd definitely never gone and _died_ on him before.

During his daze, several nurses had bustled into the room as well. It was getting a little crowded, he thought distantly, and that damn beeping still droned in his ears.

_Beeeep..._

"_Hurry_, she's flat lining!"

"I know that! I just – we aren't even positive _where_ her heart is located!"

"_What_ are you talking about!"

"She's an alien, we don't know—"

"Nurse! Just _do_ it!"

"Clear! One, two, three...CLEAR!"

_Beeeep…_

Robin couldn't breathe. He had a last look at Starfire's face, which seemed to be growing paler by the second, before it was hidden from sight by white coats and medical equipment, and there was another hand on his shoulder, but it belonged to that older doctor that he'd decided he didn't like, and then all he could hear was that goddamn

_Beeeeeep . . . ._

and then he was running.

* * *

This wasn't happening. This _wasn't_ happening. This wasn't _happening_. 

No matter how he said it to himself, he didn't quite manage to convince himself.

Beast Boy dropped his head in his hands.

He groaned. Cyborg nudged him. "Hey. Want me to get you a drink, or something?"

"Yeah. Water. Water would be really, really good right now."

"Raven, you want some?"

"No, I'm fine for now, thanks."

"'Kay. I'll be right back."

The sound of Cyborg's footfalls echoed, and then disappeared. There was relative silence. Even slouched against the wall in the quiet corridor, Beast Boy's sensitive ears could pick up murmurs from throughout the building. He thought he could hear sobs, and someone yelling very, very faintly. But for the most part, it was silent.

He'd never liked the sharp, sanitized smell of hospitals. It brought back memories of something, but whenever he tried to grasp onto them, they vanished like vapor. It unsettled him. The smell always made him want to hold his breath, like he was about to catch something that the patients had, and then he would die, too.

He _hated_ hospitals.

"Beast Boy?"

His head shot up and he stared at Raven expectantly. "Yeah?"

"Nothing, I just thought you were asleep. Are you sure you don't want to wait in the waiting room?"

"No, this is closer to her room. It's too crowded there, anyway. You can go down there if you want. The chairs are probably more comfortable." He didn't like the chairs – too confining, even if the floor was kind of cold and hard, and his foot was falling asleep from half-sitting on it.

"I'll stay with you."

He gave her a small smile. "Thanks, Raven." She nodded, and they let silence fall again. She looked away, and Beast Boy let his eyes drift to her face. She was staring intently at a spot on the opposite wall of the corridor, not noticing as a lock of hair fell into her face. He mastered the slightly alarming urge to tuck it behind her ear.

Raven let out a short breath, as if bored, and looked at him. She noticed him watching her and asked, "What?"

He swallowed, not knowing if he was looking for comfort or if it was the masochistic side of him that made him ask, "Is she going to die?" All he knew was that out of anybody, Raven would always be the one he knew wouldn't lie to him.

She looked a little taken aback, but just, he thought, for a second. Nothing shook Raven. But then it _wasn't_ for just a second, the second stretched, and the wide-eyed look like she'd been caught in the headlights and he was the car didn't go away.

"Raven?" he asked hoarsely, and she blinked like she'd forgotten she hadn't said anything. She breathed in, but said nothing, and looked so sad all of a sudden that it scared him so much more than if it had been anyone else. He suddenly wished she would lie to him.

Instead, she stayed silent for a long time. She just looked at him. He had just given up on an answer when she shifted slightly.

A deep sigh escaped from her lips and she closed the distance between the two of them until she was sitting shoulder to shoulder with him. There was suspicious moisture in her eyes, but he refused to believe it was anything other than the light playing tricks, because this was _Raven_. She lifted a slender hand and took Beast Boy's hand.

They sat there like that, next to each other, holding hands.

* * *

Cyborg was so thirsty. He could barely get air down, his throat was so parched. 

He was about to leave to get a drink when Beast Boy dropped his face in his hands and groaned. Cyborg stopped pacing, immediately feeling guilty, and bent down to nudge his friend. "Hey. Want me to get you a drink, or something?"

"Yeah. Water. Water would be really, really good right now."

"Raven, you want some?"

"No, I'm fine for now, thanks."

"'Kay. I'll be right back."

As he walked, he realized he had no idea where to get any water. Thinking the main desk would know, he turned and made his way toward the elevators. He was saved the trip down, though, when he found a water bubbler in the corner next to the elevator doors.

He sneered at the dinky paper cups sitting atop the bubbler. He needed more water than that. Poking around the area, he grinned triumphantly. "Aha!" Someone had left an unopened package of normal sized plastic cups behind the bubbler. He reached down and picked it up.

He had scissors, but the half-hope persisted that he'd retain more of his humanity, somehow, if he did things the normal way. He shook his head at himself, remembering he'd promised himself not to dwell, and tore the bag open with his hands.

He selected two cups and held one under the spout, pressing the blue button with his thumb, and watched the water pour. The second it reached the top, he brought the cup to his mouth and gulped down. "Thank God," he gasped. He felt rejuvenated and quickly filled the cup again.

He held the other cup under the stream of water as well. He closed his eyes for a minute, wondering if Robin had come back from Star's room. How was Star doing right now?

He was suddenly struck with the memory of Starfire's bloody body lying in that mess of an office. He brought a hand to his closed eyes, pressing at them as if he could force the image from his mind.

"Man, oh, man...Star," he whispered. _Don't worry, man. Star's gonna be all right_, he'd said as if he knew, even though he hated lies, because he had to convince himself as much as Robin. It wasn't, _couldn't be_, a lie, because the alternative? Just wasn't possible. She'd be fine.

And if she wasn't?

No, he wouldn't let himself think like that.

He looked down and realized the cup was overflowing, and hastily pulled it away.

The silver elevator doors slid smoothly open, and the doctor that Cyborg recognized as the guy who'd kicked Robin out dashed out of the elevator. Cyborg frowned as the doctor skidded around the corner.

He held the two cups carefully, and walked back down the corridor. As he turned the corner, someone shot out of one of the rooms and jostled Cyborg's arm as he ran by. Half the water in one of the cups spilled out.

"Hey, watch it!" He spun around and his voice died when he saw a black and yellow cape flutter around the corner.

He turned slowly around again, and spotted the number of the room Robin had just run out of. Room 239. Starfire's room.

He heard shouts and the single, unchanging beep of a heart monitor.

Both cups fell to the floor, water splashing onto the white floor tiles, and Cyborg's throat was suddenly dry again.

* * *

_I should be there I should be there why am I running? Such a coward, I can't believe I'm leaving her all alone but it doesn't matter. She won't care she's **gone**—_

Robin didn't stop running.

* * *

"Time of death," said the doctor, checking his watch, "Five thirty-two."

* * *

"Raven, Beast Boy!" He wouldn't leave the doorway, and was shouting down the corridor to his friends. And where the hell had Robin gone? 

They came running, Beast Boy dragging Raven by the hand. "Is it...?"

Cyborg desperately fought back tears. "No. Yes. Probably."

He heard frantic clamors coming from Star's room. The noise grew louder, as if building to a climax, and then there was silence. All three of them stood very still. Perhaps if they didn't breathe, that delicate scale that held all things in perfect balance wouldn't tip and change everything.

The door opened slowly and a young doctor stepped out. He was breathing hard, and his eyes flicked to each one of them. He seemed to be at a loss for words.

For one long moment not one of them moved. Then Raven's hand flew to her mouth, though she didn't make a sound. Cyborg saw Beast Boy's hand tighten almost imperceptibly over Raven's left hand, and it seemed natural that they were holding hands, the need for human contact almost overwhelming in him as well. He'd move toward them if he wasn't focusing all of his energy on not letting that one tear fall. If even one tear fell, more would fall, and that would make this real, and it _wasn't_ real. Of course it wasn't real, this was just some kind of twisted nightmare, by Mad Mod, or something, or maybe he was going insane, or...

Or maybe Star was dead.

His mouth opened and he took a sharp breath in, and then all he could do was breathe out in huge sobs that wouldn't stop, and he stepped forward with the tears falling freely down his face and engulfed Beast Boy and Raven in a huge, tight hug and wondered if he'd ever be able to let go.

* * *

He ran, and he felt his brain going into overdrive, thoughts a hundred miles a second. 

_Please don't let her why her why us why me why why I should have been expecting this sometime it practically comes in the job description so why the hell am I so messed up by this? Because she's my friend but what if it happened to me? I wish it had happened to me nothing should've happened to her maybe I could have done something and _

_what the hell am I **doing**?_

He burst out the hospital doors and looked around. It was twilight already – he'd always hated the end of daylight savings, it took away so much sunshine – and the fresh air hit him like a bullet in the chest. His mouth dropped open and he gasped for more air. The fog in his head seemed to clear, and he twisted around, feeling like he had to do something.

He'd only been gone for a minute. Maybe she was still...He ran back into the hospital.

* * *

"I'm so...so sorry." 

_Is this his first time breaking news to a patient's family?_ she wondered vaguely. _He's bad at it._

Beast Boy's elbow was digging into her ribs, and Cyborg's chin resting on top of her head was a little too hard. But she wouldn't choose anywhere else in the world to be at that moment.

She hugged tightly back and ignored the doctor's voice. But he kept talking, for some reason. He must have felt like he needed to explain their failure. "We weren't able to jumpstart her heart, and..."

Raven's eyes closed as she remembered a conversation.

"_What...? I can't feel my heart – I mean your heart, beating. There's a pulse here." Raven, trapped in Starfire's body, touched the wrist, marveling at the sight of Starfire's hands moving with just a thought from her own mind. "But I can't feel the heart." She touched her chest again, bemused._

"_Tamaranian hearts are not located there, my friend," Starfire said, amused. She reached around Raven's – Starfire's – _Whatever,_ Raven thought – shoulder, and tapped the lower left side of her back. "It is there. Can you feel it?"_

_Raven reached back awkwardly, still unused to this body, and felt the steady pounding. Thumpthumpthumpthump. It was unlike any double human heartbeat – thump-thump, thump-thump – but more closely resembled a brisk drum roll. No wonder Starfire was so overexcited sometimes. Raven herself was starting to feel a little high-strung. _

_Starfire put her hand over her own chest to feel Raven's human double heartbeat and laughed, then winced when she saw a nearby trash can melt. "These bodies... will take some getting used to. Let us hope that we will not have to get _too_ used to them, yes?"_

"Her heart's not where you think."

Beast Boy pulled back and gave her a startled look. "Is she in _hell _or something?" he asked, worried.

She rolled her eyes and pulled back from the both of them. She turned to the doctor. "Her heart – it's not in her chest. Turn her over; it's in her lower back."

The young doctor's face fell. "I'm so sorry...with an extraterrestrial – we didn't know – I'm afraid it's too late . . . ."

Raven lifted a hand and pushed him back. "Go back in there and do it."

"But –"

"You said yourself you don't know about this kind of thing because she's an alien!" She pushed him back further into the room with a wall of energy. "_Now_."

He backed way up, and the other doctor looked up from where they were unhooking equipment. "Plug it in," Raven said harshly. "Plug everything back in. We're not done yet."

* * *

Robin skidded around the corner and ran headfirst into Cyborg. "Ow." 

"Where were you, man?"

"How...?"

Cyborg looked away. Robin looked around, completely at a loss. He'd always been able to _do_ something before, research, chasing...something. What could he do now?

"Um. Raven just went kind of berserk. I think they might be trying to revive her now," said Beast Boy quietly from behind Cyborg.

Cyborg grimaced. "Yeah, but I don't really think—"

"CLEAR!"

All three boys nearly jumped out of their skins. "CLEAR!"

"Miss, I really don't—"

"_Again_." Raven had never sounded scarier.

"Y-yes."

Three more fruitless tries later, the inkling of hope so tiny he had been afraid to acknowledge it, was gone again. But then there was a faint beep. And then another. And another.

"Oh my God."

Robin was almost afraid to look in. But he did. Two of the doctors were crossing themselves. Raven's eyes were wide. Dr. Mann was checking Starfire's pulse. And Starfire was on her stomach, for some reason, but Dr. Mann was already turning her over to put an oxygen mask over her mouth. She was still unconscious, still pale, but the relieved smiles on everyone's faces and the steady beeping of the heart monitor were all he needed.

* * *

"Hey, Star," whispered Robin. "How're you doing?" 

"I am fine, I think. Did I really die? I do not remember." She wished she did, but it was probably better that she did not. Mortals were not meant to know such things.

"Yeah, you were gone for a few minutes, not sure how long exactly. Longer than any human would be able to, anyway. We nearly lost you a few times after that, but you're strong. Thank God. And they let Raven in to help heal some damage they found. So she saved your life twice. Three times, even, since she got someone to call the ambulance in the first place."

She smiled weakly, knowing now more than ever how lucky she was for such friends, and suddenly had to blink back tears. "I am grateful to her. It appears I owe her much. I would like to thank her, is she here?"

"No, I made the others go home. They'll be back in here within the hour, though, the minute they find out you woke up. You can count on that." He grinned. "I'm really, really glad you're awake, have I told you that?"

She let out a small laugh and immediately winced, putting a hand to her ribs. "Only more times than I can count."

He gripped her hand. "Hey, don't strain yourself. If you're tired..."

"Robin, I am stronger than I look. I only moved my ribs a bit more than I should have."

"No, I'll go. I'll have plenty of time to see you later, after all. And you'll need your energy for when Beast Boy and Cyborg show up, huh? I'll go call them, if the hospital hasn't already. You just rest."

"All right. I _am_ feeling a bit sleepy." She smiled and let her eyes drift closed. She heard Robin move towards the door, then falter. For a moment there was silence, and then she could hear him coming back towards the bed. Then she felt something press against her forehead – _a kiss_ – and then before she could even open her eyes, his steps hurried away and the door shut.

If literally dying was what it took to get a simple kiss on the forehead from him, she really would have to stop waiting around for him and start being more forward in the future.

She relaxed and decided on a quick nap. She hoped the others would come soon. She wasn't really that tired.

* * *

_And that is Pulse, edited. I think it's my favorite of the Teen Titans fics I've written, and I hoped you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing. I'd love if you let me know what you thought, or - especially - if you have any edits to point out. Reviews brighten my day, always. Thanks for making it this far!_


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